1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a substrate processing apparatus in which transport robots transport semiconductor substrates, glass substrates for liquid crystal displays, glass substrates for photomasks, substrates for optical disks or the like (hereinafter briefly referred to as “substrates”) to a plurality of processing units each for performing a predetermined process such as photolithography on such substrates.
2. Description of the Background Art
As is well known, products such as semiconductors and liquid crystal displays are manufactured by performing a series of processes including cleaning, resist coating, exposure, development, etching, formation of interlayer dielectric films, thermal processing, dicing and the like, on the above-described substrates. Widely used as a so-called coater/developer is a substrate processing apparatus in which a plurality of processing units for performing, for example, among the series of processes, resist coating, development and their associated thermal processes, respectively, are incorporated, and transport robots circularly transport substrates between the respective processing units, so that the substrates are subjected to a series of photolithography processes.
In accordance with the recent demand for higher accuracy in apparatus control and processing accuracy of such substrate processing apparatus, it is desired to keep track of various types of measured data obtained during actual processes such as processing time, processing temperature, revolution per minute of motors and flow rate of chemical solutions, as processing history data. Accordingly, techniques for collecting various types of data during processes performed on substrates using a control system installed in a substrate processing apparatus, to thereby accumulate the collected data as the processing history are proposed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 2002-343694 and 2002-280278.
Turning to the case in which a substrate with a process defect occurs in the above-described substrate processing apparatus, an operator of the apparatus conventionally makes an inspection on the apparatus to make clear the cause of such defect, to thereby identify a processing unit in which abnormal processing has been conducted. Identifying a defective processing unit requires a great deal of time, and it is an extremely difficult operation particularly for an inexperienced operator, causing at worst a problem in that a defective processing unit cannot be identified accurately.